


you've got to be kidding

by eunbinatozaki



Category: PRISTIN (Band)
Genre: +sometimes pristin just love each other and have feelings, pristin will make nayoung grow old faster
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-16
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-01-18 02:23:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12378900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eunbinatozaki/pseuds/eunbinatozaki
Summary: pristin & life.latest: naminky.





	1. rules are for a reason (they're meant to be broken)

**Author's Note:**

> // twitter: @chuuniversai

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, jieqiong and yewon try to be sneaky, minkyung is no help, but nayoung thinks it's all normal anyway. [idolverse; nayoung centric]

when nayoung first steps back into the dorm after her mandatory meeting with their manager about the upcoming schedules for the week, everything seems normal.

minkyung is sitting on the floor with her back against the couch, guitar in her lap and kyla seated beside her as they go through lyrics they’ve been brainstorming for a new song. kyungwon is in the armchair across from the duo, legs thrown over the armrest with one hand shoved into a bag of chips and the other scrolling through her phone (from her stationary place, nayoung can see her mouthing out things that have something to do with the pros and cons of trying to go fishing again). in the kitchen, siyeon and sungyeon are having a staring match over a pint of ice cream that sits on the counter, no doubt debating on who gets it (though nayoung is sure it’s neither of theirs because she was the one who did the shopping this past week and neither of them put ice cream on their list). and on the couch, blanket haphazardly thrown over her legs and hair slipping into her mouth with every breath in, is eunwoo fast asleep, yaebin tickling her sock-clad feet and pretending to read whenever a confused eunwoo jolts awake, only to repeat the cycle again when she slips back into sleep.

so yeah, everything seems pretty normal to her at the moment.

the only thing that isn’t normal, though, is the absence of jieqiong and yewon. sure, on some occasions they can’t find yewon because the girl will fall asleep in the vocal room when she’s putting in a little extra practice and they’ll spend the better part of an hour looking for her, or jieqiong will have left the building entirely to go out and explore the area around their dorm, but for the most part, when all the girls are gathered in one place, those two are a part of the mix; so it wasn’t like them to just be missing like this.

nayoung toes off her shoes and nudges them into her self-designated spot amidst the pile of shoes already there (she makes a mental note to straighten them out later on before going to bed – and to also tell eunwoo to stop folding in the backs of all her shoes) and steps over to where yeabin sits on the couch, her hand casually reaching out to pat the top of the younger girls head, effectively pulling her attention from tickling eunwoo once again. yaebin barely reacts, used to the sudden and unannounced touches nayoung is known for, and leans her head against nayoung’s side, making her hand fall from her head and to her shoulder instead. nayoung pats her shoulder with a smile, then, “where’s jieqiong and yewon?”

minkyung’s fingers stop plucking at her guitar, her gaze lifting to meet nayoung and nayoung can see the slight hesitation in her eyes before it disappears. a small part of nayoung feels for minkyung, because she knows that whenever she isn’t there herself, and no matter how much siyeon “jokingly” claims it should be her due to seniority, minkyung instantly falls into the “leader” role over the group. and it’s tough, nayoung knows this better than anyone, to watch over a group of girls who are all so different and wild in their own ways, so it’s a challenge to keep it all under control. and she can see that now with the way minkyung sighs and hands her guitar over to kyla, only to stand a moment later and gesture for nayoung to follow her.

nayoung is slightly confused as she follows after the girl, trying to catch one of the other girls eye before they turn the corner to head to where all their rooms are located. she’s even more confused at that – if the girls are in the dorm, why not just say so? nayoung’s about to question her about it when minkyung reaches out and abruptly knocks on the door, which only furthers nayoung’s confusion. they don’t knock on doors in the dorms, mainly due to the fact that siyeon, eunwoo, and kyungwon stopped having a care for what a closed door meant long ago and nayoung had just gotten tired of telling them that knocking was polite (she had heard the _we’re like family here, there’s no need to be polite!”_ speech from eunwoo too many times by that point). her confusion is short lived, though, because she hears a whispered curse that’s most likely from jieqiong, a muffled chorus of ow’s that could be from either of them, and then the slamming of the closet door before yewon’s yelling for them to come in.

worst case scenario, nayoung thinks, is that they’ve somehow fallen into sketchy business that neither of them are old enough to understand and they’re trying to hide it from her. the “leader” in her mind instantly thinks of the absolute worst: drugs, a dating scandal, someone is hurt; anything that would make them the number one searched name on naver if it were to get out. and sure, nayoung knows it’s a leap because it’s jieqiong and yewon, two of the slightly easier members of the group, but still, it’s better to be prepared for the worst and then be presently surprised when it’s not that bad.

minkyung seems to know where her mind’s gone, because she taps nayoung’s shoulder gently and smiles, “it’s not that bad, unnie – promise. just something i couldn’t deal with properly.” nayoung nods and then watches as minkyung walks back to the main room, leaving nayoung to deal with whatever it is. she rubs her hands against her face, telling herself that she won’t slip into leader mode and will just go in as their unnie, and pushes open the door, only for that plan to instantly fly out the window and crash into the concrete below.

because there sits jieqiong and yewon, both with their backs pressed against the closet door, yewon with one sock missing and the fresh sheets that were on her bed when nayoung left an hour ago mysteriously missing, and while jieqiong looks a little more put together than yewon, she still has this slightly panicked looks in her eyes that nayoung has come to realize means she’s up to something.

(when she claimed they were the easier members, she forgot to remind herself that they were just slightly the easiest of a hard group of girls.)

”so,” she starts, looking between the two, “what’s going on here?” the slight edge in her voice snaps them both to attention, because they’re on their feet in an instant, sickly sweet smiles on their faces, and nayoung knows they’re instantly going to try and soften her up. she’s proven right not even a second later when jieqiong is instantly at her side, gripping at her right arm and quite literally bouncing on her feet. “okay, unnie, here’s the thing. yewon-ie and i,” she gestures toward yewon who looks equally excited now, “have a question for you.”

nayoung knows this won’t end well, but she can’t shut them down so easily, so she nods for her to keep going, which prompts yewon to step up now, then, “we know you and the managers have said no to pets and everything because we’re only a few months into debut and we have to focus on getting ourselves out there and everything,” yewon breathes deeply, winded from her quick speech, “but we want to know if it’s possible to maybe get something small and, you know, not say anything to manager unnie?”

nayoung blinks, looks between the two, then blinks again. she’s dumbfounded, really. because while she got the gist of what they’re saying, she can’t truly believe that they’re saying it. there was an extensive list of rules the girls had to follow and that nayoung had to make sure they followed. and right under “don’t go out after curfew” (and right above yaebin’s self-written _don’t make fun of people’s heights_!) there’s a rule that says “no pets in the dorm under any circumstance ( _not even kongie, kyungwon – sorry_!)”. and nayoung knows they know it, because aside from going over the rules when they first got them, she also has to remind them almost ever other day to not randomly bring a stray home when they pass by them on the way to the convenience store.

so nayoung knows they know better, knows they would never. but at the same time, she knows them, knows that when they truly want to be, jieqiong and yewon can be just as bad together as siyeon and eunwoo or kyungwon and yaebin. so nayoung looks between them again before settling on yewon, the admittedly easier to crack between the two, and levels her with a look, and asks, “yewon-ah, did you two get something ‘small’?” jieqiong has the audacity to _laugh_ at her question, as if it’s the most absurd question ever, and nayoung wants to laugh at both her and the sheepish and unsure look that sweeps across yewon’s face before her smile returns, and then yewon’s shaking her head, a series of no’s leaving her while jieqiong just keeps laughing, louder and longer.

nayoung knows better, knows there’s actually something hidden away in the closet yewon still stands in front of (she’ll later tell them that she heard the muffled bark that jieqiong was so obviously trying to hide behind her frenzied laughter) and shrugs free of jieqiong’s hold with a smile. she decides she’ll let them get away with it for now, because they’ve never truly done anything like this before, and she’ll let them bask in their “win over her” for a little before she tells them that they can’t keep the dog in the dorms (but maybe it can stay with one of their managers and the girls can visit on their off days). so nayoung just nods, says, “okay, i believe you,” and then steps out of the room, laughing to herself at the relieved duel sighs that she hears once she shuts the door behind her.

when she’s back in the main room, she sees that eunwoo’s awake and trying to fix her hair, while siyeon sits beside her, passing the ice cream back and forth with sungyeon who’s now helping kyla with her lyrics. kyungwon’s still how nayoung last saw her, only now her chips are gone and her phone’s put away, instead she and yaebin are busy with filling in a page of a coloring book. minkyung steps out of the kitchen, bottle of water to her lips, hiding the knowing smile she sports as she spots nayoung.

“so did you deal with it?” she asks around an amused laugh, and nayoung shrugs, her own laugh slipping past her lips. because it’s obvious minkyung knows what they’re hiding in there, but of course she would leave it to nayoung because that’s just a minkyung thing to do. “sub-leader” or not, minkyung would leave the most ridiculous tasks for nayoung to take on, her true leader status and need for the more serious problems be damned. as minkyung passes her on her way back to join the others, she seemingly ‘remembers’ something, her smile widening, then loud enough for her to be heard, “by the way, kyungwon helped them.”

nayoung whips around, staring at kyungwon who looks up at the mention of her name, eyes wide. because while nayoung will let jieqiong and yewon bask in their sneaky deed for the time being, she can’t say she’d do the same for kyungwon, someone who has done multiple “sneaky” things before and tried to pull a fast one on nayoung when she was caught out. “kang kyungwon!”

kyungwon jumps at that, sending a scathing glare at minkyung’s snorting laugh, and then, as if proud of her help in their deed, “if you won’t let kongie into the dorm, then we need some kind of pet!”

nayoung stares at her, looks at minkyung who shrugs, and then just falls onto the couch beside eunwoo without a word, whining at the way they all laugh at how she’s just given up.

definitely normal.


	2. kicking and screaming (and more screaming)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, the girls have a problem and no one deals with it properly. [idolverse; sungyeon-centric]

sungyeon practically slides into the room, only able to catch herself from falling by grabbing the handle of the door, chest heaving with how fast she was moving. her eyes fall onto where nayoung sleeps in her bed, one leg hanging off the mattress and the blankets twisted around her other leg, and she almost feels bad about being the one who has to wake her up. they’ve all been tired lately, constantly being on the move and the never-ending practices do that, and whenever they could get sleep, they made sure to treasure that time. and seeing as nayoung has only been asleep for about forty-five minutes since they’ve gotten back from two radio shows and then four pre-performances right after, she wishes she didn’t have to do this.

there’s a touch against her back and she squeaks, instantly slapping her other hand against her mouth to muffle it before she can wake their leader and turns to stare at kyla whose walked up behind her. kyla doesn’t look at all sorry about scaring her, only mildly unimpressed at the fact that sungyeon is taking so long, and raises an eyebrow. “what’s taking so long, unnie? they’re getting worse.”

sungyeon just points her thumb over her shoulder, nods when she hears kyla’s quiet _oh_ of realization, then nudges her out of the way so she can close the door behind them, and glances at the younger girl, stating,“we can’t bother her now, she needs the sleep. we have to do this on our own.” kyla looks unsure and probably thinks this will turn out badly, but sungyeon can’t do much else other than push her back down the hall instead of trying to convince her.

they don’t need nayoung for _everything_.

 

* * *

 

turns out, actually, they do need nayoung. because when they make it back to the main room, it seems everything has gone from mildly concerning to full blown chaos. jieqiong and kyungwon are standing on the kitchen counter, each with a broom in hand, yelling for siyeon to hurry back – though jieqiong is doing more screaming in unintelligible chinese than actual words that they can decipher. siyeon, for her part, seems to be taking her time with hurrying back, opting to lean against the wall beside yewon, watching the girl as she knocks on the bathroom door repeatedly. from inside the bathroom, she hears eunwoo scream loudly, a crash ( _”i’m okay, i’m okay!”_ ), and when she looks to siyeon for explanation, she’s answered with a shrug, then, “she locked herself in there because she thought it was safer but keeps getting freaked out by everything anyway.” and sungyeon nods, because yeah, that sounds like eunwoo.

she moves to the couch, where minkyung sits comfortably with a magazine in her hands, yaebin beside her with headphones in and music blaring loudly, and taps her shoulder. “unnie, aren’t you supposed to be, you know,” she waves her hand around the room, gesturing to everything going on around them, “getting this under control?” minkyung shrugs lazily, turning another page in the magazine before looking up at sungyeon, relaxed smile on her lips despite the chaos in the background, and shakes her head.

”it’s only a bug, seungyeon – let them handle it themselves.” then she goes back to her magazine, leaving sungyeon to just stare before kyla calls for her. she knows it’s just a bug and they can handle it, but still, they need _some_ kind of order here – they go into absolute chaos without even one percent leadership.

because really, aside from minkyung, none of them are willing to deal with a bug crisis. jieqiong refuses to touch anything with more or less than four legs while kyungwon only deals with dogs or cats. she, kyla, and yewon are okay with bugs, they just refuse to actually touch them and yaebin will try to catch them, but if she can’t after one try, she gives up. eunwoo, on the other hand, is pretty much afraid of everything (that thought is followed by another timely scream) and siyeon was the one who actually brought the bug into the dorm in the hopes of playing a joke on eunwoo. yet, somehow, between then and now, she lost the bug, eunwoo had seen it crawling along the wall, and then the next thing she knew, it was a full blown catastrophe that no one had the first clue on how to fix.

”— didn’t think it would be this bad!” is the tail end of what she hears siyeon saying as she walks back over, yewon still trying to coerce eunwoo out of the bathroom, and kyla now sitting on the floor beside them, looking completely over the whole situation now. siyeon seems about five percent sorry about this, because knowing her, she actually takes pleasure in the fact that, while her joke didn’t go the way she wanted it to, it still played out in a way that would be seen as funny in some ways. she successfully scared eunwoo, so that’s a plus for her – everyone else reacting the way they have been is just a bonus she’s willing to accept. “next time,” she continues, smirk curling on her lips, “i’ll use a fake bug.” and sungyeon decides not to focus on the use of the term ‘next time’, instead just falling to the floor beside kyla, head in her hands, and mumbles, “we should have woken up nayoung unnie.”

 

* * *

 

nayoung jolts awake when she hears a scream, nearly tripping over the blanket wrapped around her legs as she stands from her bed, and runs her fingers through her hair to fix the mess she’s sure is her bed head. she checks the time on the clock as she passes by – it’s been fifty-six minutes since she laid down – and makes her way out of the room to investigate. and when she makes it down the hall, she wishes she never woke up in the first place.

minkyung, kyla, yewon, and sungyeon are sitting on the cushion-less couch, kyungwon and jieqiong actually using the cushions as pads to soften the blow of them ramming the bathroom door, demanding eunwoo open it and come out. eunwoo screams every time they actually make contact (nayoung curses the fact that eunwoo takes such good care of her voice because she can go for hours without so much as straining anything) and siyeon still stands beside the door, laughing loudly at the silliness of it all and makes no moves to actually help. and yaebin, still with her headphones in, is now sitting at the kitchen counter and eating from a bowl of cereal, just watching everything unfold.

nayoung just stares for a moment before instantly turning on her heel and heading back to her room without a word. she honestly hasn’t had enough sleep to deal with this.


	3. lights are low (tension is high)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, the power goes out and everyone handles it differently. [au; non-centric, nayoung based]

minkyung is almost done secretly placing the order for her food delivery when the phone suddenly clicks, the silence on the other end a stark contrast to the almost instantaneous screams that flood throughout the cabin. she stares at the phone in disbelief, not at all concerned about the way she can hear jieqiong from inside yelling about how this is the start of every horror movie to ever exist – she just wanted some fried and greasy food in her stomach (for the past week that they’ve been here, she’s been forced by yaebin to maintain a strict ‘camping diet’ – as in she could only eat things people would take on camping trips; so minkyung has been eating canned beans and hot dogs and everything in between and she’s tired of it).

she debates throwing the cabin phone on the ground, because this is like some cruel joke, but stops with the phone held in the air when nayoung rounds the corner from the back of the cabin, her flashlight shining over minkyung like a police spotlight, marking her like the fiend she is. nayoung says nothing, just looks from minkyung’s face, to the phone, and then back, then holds out her hand. minkyung hands it over, grumbling about how unfair it all is, then crosses her arms over her chest, pout firm on her lips.

nayoung sighs, pockets the phone, then, “you know yaebin’s going to be mad you tried to sneak something here, right?” minkyung huffs because, really, if yaebin is mad about her trying to sneak things, then minkyung can be mad about how she was put in the situation to have to sneak things in the first place. she says as much and nayoung sighs again, pushing at minkyung’s shoulder to get her to go back inside.

“children, i’m dealing with children.”  


* * *

  
sungyeon thinks that, really, it’s not exactly her fault that the power went out. so what if she was the one who spilled an entire jug of water onto the circuit breaker? it was kyungwon’s fault for putting the jug on such a high shelf and forcing her to practically defy the laws of gravity to get it down (the number one law being: if the bowl sungyeon throws goes up, then everything else must come down – including the contents of the entire shelf the jug had been sitting on, as well as the shelf itself). so really, it’s kyungwon’s fault, not hers.

apparently, though, kyungwon doesn’t share that same sentiment. because when sungyeon relays this to a disbelieving nayoung, voice as innocent and sickly sweet as she can make it, kyungwon practically launches herself off the stairs and at sungyeon with no hesitation. sungyeon screams, because that’s all she really can do at the moment, and scampers away from the attack, quickly ducking behind nayoung and pointing an accusing finger at a victimized kyungwon.

“see! she’s trying to kill me out of guilt!”

from her place behind nayoung, sungyeon can hear kyungwon counting under her breath, her eyes still trained on the younger girl – sungyeon knows what that look means. before nayoung can say anything to hopefully diffuse the situation, maybe calm kyungwon down and tell sungyeon that she isn’t actually mad about her knocking the power, kyungwon’s countdown hits 10 and suddenly sungyeon’s shooting out the front door of the cabin, kyungwon hot on her heels (“ _bae sungyeon, the cabin lights aren’t the only ones getting knocked out tonight!_ ”).

nayoung stares after them before her palm meets her face with a defeated smack.  
  


* * *

  
siyeon is busy cutting holes into a sheet when nayoung stumbles across her, a pile of fabric covering the floor around her feet. she stares at the younger girl, watches the way she mumbles something to herself and then laughs, and nayoung thinks that maybe the week in the woods and then subsequent power outage has finally lead to the break in siyeon’s sanity.

(truthfully, while most of the girls labeled siyeon as a near perfect spawn of satan, nayoung always believed the younger girl was like a precious little sister to her, someone she would always have to take care of. now, though, she might have finally understood what the others were talking about.)

siyeon looks up just as nayoung is backing out the room and suddenly that smile nayoung is so used to blooms on her face (who knew evil could look so cute?), then, “do you think jieqiong would believe this sheet is really a ghost if i pop up on the balcony outside the window with it on?”

she says nothing, just stares astonished at the fact that siyeon has thought of this prank so quickly, and siyeon must take that as her answer, because she just laughs again and goes back to cutting.

 _oh_ , nayoung thinks as successfully backs out of the room this time, _i really do see why everyone says that about her_.  
  


* * *

  
yaebin sits in front of the lone board game in the cabin, eyes trained on the pieces that litter the board. she reaches out to move a piece, shakes her head, then reaches for another before ultimately deciding that no, that isn’t the right move, then drops her hand to go back to thinking.

across from her eunwoo groans, loudly and unabashedly, sock clad feet quietly kicking against the carpeted floor they sit on. when yaebin first came to her moments after the power went out, chess board tucked under her arm, she thought why not? she’s never played chess before and it could be a good way to learn a new skill _and_ kill time. but now, the powers been out for thirty minutes and yaebin is still on only her second move of the entire game and eunwoo is _dying_ waiting for this to end.

just as eunwoo is about to flip the board over, yaebin finally moves a piece then sits back with a satisfied smirk, gesturing for eunwoo to go. eunwoo stares at her, holds her tongue on the rant that wants to come out (because it is _not_ proper game etiquette to take over forty-five seconds to decide a move in _any_ game), then just reaches for a random piece and taps it across as many squares as she can before plopping it on yaebin’s end of the board.

yaebin splutters, eyes wide, and points as eunwoo swipes three of her pawns and her bishop from the board. “that’s not how you play chess! put those back!”

eunwoo shrugs unapologeticly and smiles. “you asked me if i _would_ play, not if i _could_ play.” then, almost like an afterthought, “now shut it and give me your little horse-y, i jumped him.”

(nayoung has to duck when several chess pieces fly across the room as she’s walking by, watching as yaebin storms away from the board she flipped over, eunwoo jokingly yelling for her to come back and “ _finish the game like a man_ ”.

nayoung knows better than to ask.)  


* * *

  
yewon is in the kitchen when nayoung finally makes it there with the sole purposes of assessing the true damage of the circuit breaker. the younger girl has the flashlight in her mouth pointed at the floor as she mops at the water that’s still dripping from the counter tops and under the circuit breaker, music blaring from the battery-operated radio yaebin had stuffed into the back of the car before they left. nayoung wants to tell her to not clean it up, to leave it for sungyeon because it _is_ sungyeon’s fault after all and she needs to clean her own messes, not just leave them and try to pin the blame on someone else.

she reaches out and taps yewon on the shoulder, words on the tip of her tongue, when yewon jumps at the sudden touch, handle of the mop swinging abruptly and smacking into the radio. nayoung watches, almost like it’s in slow motion, as the radio falls to the ground and lands in an un-mopped puddle of water, the song crackling momentarily before fizzling out completely as the back of the radio snaps off with the force of the collision.

yewon gasps and swoops down to pick up the radio, using the bottom of her shirt to dab at the water that drips down it, apologies spewing from her like a broken tap, and nayoung just sighs as a battery rolls into the side of her foot.  


* * *

  
jieqiong screams, arms flailing as she runs down the hallway, nearly tripping down the stairs before finally catching her footing and taking each step two at a time to get down faster. when she said this is the start of every horror movie, she knew she was on to something – she just didn’t know the actual horror part would be happening to _her_ of all people (she at least wished it happened to eunwoo, then at least she could laugh at her best friend’s horror).

she checks behind her to make sure whatever it was she saw isn’t behind her, then screams again when she turns around and comes face to face with a stone-faced, but still exhausted looking nayoung. jieqiong at least has the decency to look sheepish, knowing that she is being much too loud for the older girl’s tastes. but her life was at stake and her survival instincts kicked in – nayoung would understand that at least, right?

nayoung shakes her head before she can even explain herself, using her hand to turn jieqiong around and lead her back toward the stairs. jieqiong tries to turn back, tries to say that she won’t go back up there if her life depended on it (which it does!), but nayoung just grunts and jieqiong knows she’s lost.

head down and with nayoung blocking the bottom of the stairs so she can’t run away, jieqiong slowly goes back up. only to scream upon seeing the figure again, making a sharp left turn and locking herself into the bathroom.

nayoung can hear siyeon’s screechy laugh from here and just sits down on the last step, her head buried in her hands.  


* * *

  
when the lights finally flicker back on twenty minutes later (nayoung has never been so glad to hear the loud, boisterous clicking of an old generator before this moment), she calls for a group meeting in the living room, no ifs, ands, or buts.

they all shuffle in once she’s rounded them up, each looking as exhausted as the last. minkyung is disdainfully eating from a can of beans, eyes glaring at a sulking yaebin who ignores the constant pokes to her cheek from a smiling eunwoo. sungyeon is laid out on the couch, face pressed into the cushions with kyungwon sitting on her back, the older girl assuring a worried, freshly changed yewon that _of course sungyeon can breathe, i’m not that heavy_! siyeon is sitting on the floor beside the over turned chess board, using a white pawn as a tiny makeshift ghost and re-telling the others of her “epic” prank on a sulking jieqiong.

nayoung swears she’s going to tell them all off, mention that just because the power went out doesn’t mean they can all go insane and act like animals (which, to be fair, the animal comment would more-so be for siyeon and kyungwon), remind them that this was supposed to be a relaxing trip before they all headed back to school next week, when she suddenly stops and counts heads again. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and herself makes nine – but where’s ten?

she asks the group about the whereabouts of their youngest and rubs tiredly at her face when they all shrug. from the couch, she can just make out sungyeon’s _i saw her out back when kyungwon was trying to kill me_ and just when she’s about to send someone to go look for her, the door opens and in steps kyla, the old toolbox from under the kitchen sink in hand and grease marking her face and clothes.

nayoung stares and kyla stares back, blinks, then holds up the tool box, face calm and collected. then, as if it was the most logical thing, “i fixed the generator.”

nayoung just holds her hands up, shakes her head, and heads for the stairs,  
  
“we’re never going on a trip again."


	4. roll with the punches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, yaebin should know better than to listen to kyungwon [au; yaebin-centric // policeoffier!nayoung, eunwoo, kyla]

yaebin slumps back against the wall and sighs for the thirteenth (she’s kept count!) time.

across from her, eunwoo stifles a laugh against the back of her hand and kyla places her notebook down, lazily twirling a pen between her fingers as she levels yaebin with a mildly annoyed glare. “can you please keep quiet over there? i’m trying to get some work done and you’re not helping with all your mopey—“ she waves a hand around, managing to mark her skin with the pen, and pouts, “—moping sounds. just shush."

yaebin has the audacity to look offended at kyla’s words and she lets out an indignant noise of protest, lifting herself up enough to press as close as she can, ignoring the loud guffaw eunwoo lets out at her current state of being. “well excuse me, miss i-have-work-to-do,” she sneers, cutting her eyes to eunwoo as she practically howls with laughter from her seat, hands clutching at her stomach, “not all of us can be so happy. let me mope in peace.” kyla seems to not care about her feelings, more focused on wiping at the mark on her skin than paying her any attention, as she just hums, uninterested. “or, you could just let me go, then we can both be at peace."

kyla glances up then and yaebin smiles, that one smile she _knows_ usually gets her off the hook with most things, no questions asked. but it seems kyla is either a, blind and can’t appreciate an award-winning smile, or b, she really is an emotion-less robot, because she just shakes her head once, mutters out a succinct “no”, then goes back to her work as if yaebin never opened her mouth to begin with.

she sighs, again, and flicks eunwoo off when she points and laughs _again_.  
  
\---  
  
thirty minutes have passed and her back hurts, she’s hungry, slightly tired, and she just wants to go home. but no, tweedle-dumb and tweedle-kyla won’t allow it and she knows there’s no way for her to convince them otherwise. by now, kyla is done with her work and talking to a chip munching eunwoo about some new drama they both had been watching the week before, arguing about who was the better choice as a lead character between their two favorites. yaebin could care less about it all really, but they refuse to talk to her, and any time she does manage to get a word in, they both ignore her as if she’s scum on the bottom of their shoes.

(she swears, whenever she gets the chance, she’s going to pummel eunwoo. and, like, pout at kyla because no one can touch her.)

yaebin sits up properly as she hears the door open, watches how eunwoo and kyla suddenly scramble to attention, and sighs (twenty-three times now) again when nayoung strolls inside, minkyung hot on her heels, and yaebin knows she’s in for it now. as she looks between nayoung and minkyung, both of which are wearing disapproving frowns, nayoung’s more disappointed and minkyung’s more angry, yaebin lifts a hand and waves, cautious smile curling onto her lips. “hey, fancy seeing you here, huh?”

she knows it’s the wrong thing to say, because minkyung starts like she’s going to come over and absolutely smack the jokes out of yaebin’s head, but nayoung’s hand on her shoulder stops her, and yabein has never been so grateful and also scared to have nayoung there. minkyung takes a deep breath and yaebin can hear her counting to ten under her breath to calm herself, then, “not a time for jokes, kang. nayoung wouldn’t tell me, so now you have to. why are you in a fucking jail cell?” yaebin has the right sense of mind to at least look sheepish at the question, ignoring the smug look eunwoo shoots to her over their shoulders, eyes filled with mirth as she silently laughs at the predicament yaebin has somehow gotten herself into.

(she really is going to pummel jung eunwoo.)

“well, you know, shit got too real?” she says airily, her shoulders lifting in a helpless shrug, and even nayoung looks like she wants to throttle yaebin for her answer. she holds up her hands as nayoung lets minkyung go, eyes wide and head shaking before the older girl can even take a step toward her, “okay, okay! sorry, no more jokes!” she pinches at the bridge her nose and sighs (twenty-four times) harshly, eyes rolling at her own mess, “kyungwon bet all these guys at the bar that i could beat them at arm wrestling, and maybe i went a little overboard with the drinks because next think we knew there was a fight and then i was here.”

minkyung’s left eye twitches as she speaks (yaebin knows it means she’s truly mad — she'd only seen it once when minkyung's junior year boyfriend had cheated on her three days before prom and then _still_ tried to get her to go with him before she slapped him) and yaebin looks to nayoung, begging with her eyes for her to hold minkyung back. nayoung seems to take pity on her, because she grabs at minkyung’s arm and pulls her into the closest seat, motioning for eunwoo and kyla to come over and keep an eye on her as she picks up a notebook from the table, flipping through it slowly.

“according to the bartender, some guy tried to cheat and yaebin kneed him in the—“ she gestures below the waist vaguely, “—you know. said something like ‘ _any guy who cheats to win against a girl doesn’t deserve to feel like a man anymore_.’” she places the notebook down and crosses her arms over her chest, lifts one hand to rub tiredly at her forehead, “siyeon called us after you and kyungwon downed too many and by time we got there, only one hit had been thrown, and since it was by yaebin,” minkyung groans at that, yaebin grimaces, and nayoung ignores it all, “we had to go by protocol and bring only her in.”

minkyung doesn’t say anything for a few long minutes, and yaebin twists her fingers together nervously as she watches the older girl all the while. finally, after what feels like decades, minkyung glances to nayoung with a tired glint to her eyes, “how much is it to bail the dummy out?” yaebin wants to protest and claim she isn’t dumb (though, listening to a drunk kang kyungwon would prove otherwise), but keeps quiet because it’s better to not get even lower on minkyung’s bad side. so she just watches and waits.

nayoung glances to eunwoo who’s too busy giggling about yaebin being called dumb, and then to kyla who just turns to minkyung, “since the owner isn’t pressing charges for her fighting in his bar, and the other guy was too drunk to even want to press charges,” yaebin assumes it has something to do with him not wanting anyone to know he got hit by a girl and smirks, “it’s only about eighty-five for a first offense.”

kyla nods as she finishes speaking and minkyung glances to yaebin as she stands, brushing imaginary lint from her jacket with her own nod. “eighty-five, right?” she asks, kyla nodding once more and yaebin smiles, because _finally_ , she’s going to get out of there and she can finally take a hot shower and get into bed and cuddle with minkyung until the sun rises. except not, apparently, because minkyung turns on her heel and heads toward the door, yelling over her shoulder, “let her stay here for the night instead.”

yaebin scrambles from the floor and grips the bars of the cell, watching after her, “babe! come on!”

minkyung waves without a look back and eunwoo shrieks with laughter.  
  
\---  
  
(when minkyung comes back two hours later and hands over the eighty-five to nayoung, she playfully swats the back of yaebin’s head with a fond smile and asks her if she’s learned her lesson.

yaebin nods, mumbles something along the lines of _next time i hit a guy, make sure no one sees it_ and minkyung groans, turning back to ask nayoung if she can put yaebin back in, eunwoo laughing all the while.

nayoung rubs tiredly at her forehead. she sometimes wishes her friends weren’t the way they are.)


	5. the princess of the house

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, it's siyeon's big day. [idolverse; siyeon-centric + pledisfam mention]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a little fluff piece for this fluff's birthday.

siyeon clears her throat as she steps into the room, tapping a foot rapidly as she waits for everyone to finally look at her. when eunwoo continues to blab on regardless of the obvious silence around her (something about taeyeon sunbaenim – siyeon has to physically hold herself back from fangirling from her name alone), she shoots a look to yaebin who nods in understanding before reaching around sungyeon's back and swatting the back of eunwoo's head.

she ignores the squawk eunwoo lets out (“ _kang yaebin, i will end you!”_ ) and drops a binder onto the table in front of everyone with a heavy and loud thud, rolling her eyes at the _new_ squawk that eunwoo (and also jieqiong who has the unfortunate job of sitting beside her and screams when she’s grabbed) lets out in surprise. siyeon has to suppress whining at the fact that no one will listen to her (it’s _her_ day, she deserves all the attention) and settles for a simple pout. it seems to work, because nayoung takes pity on her and silences everyone with a single look before nodding for sieyon to continue.

(siyeon has to admit she’s jealous of the fact that nayoung can control them all so easily. she’s been practically running this place for nine years now and people still pat her on the head instead of letting fear strike their hearts whenever she makes orders.

seungcheol _still_ has a bruise on his leg from the time he said _it’s cute that you play ceo, junghyeon-ah._ )

“alright! listen, peasants,” she pauses when she hears a throat clear then glances to the right, “except for kyla, you’re great and i love you.” they share a smile and siyeon makes a show of giving their youngest an overexaggerated wink before continuing, “as you know, it’s the official day of my birthday and that means i get to do whatever i want, whenever i want, and no one can say anything about it.”

yewon raises her hand (finally! someone treats her like the superior she is) and she nods toward her, interest peaked. “uh, not to be mean or anything,” she starts, eyes scanning the others around her as if looking for backup, then continuing when they all seem as eager to hear what she has to say, “don’t you kind of do that already? you don’t really have a sense for respecting authority.”

(nevermind, yewon is just as mean to her as yaebin and minkyung.)

she huffs at the way the others seem to agree with yewon without any verbal confirmation, and even nayoung, her most precious and dearest unnie, even nods, not even bothering to apologize on behalf of siyeon’s now hurt pride. siyeon just watches as everyone talks around her, eyes sharp and glaring at the way kyungwon recounts a story on how siyeon demanded her food be paid for after every meal when she had hurt her leg. grinds her teeth at how sungyeon comments about the time she had to carry siyeon up six flights of stairs because she was tired. even kyla mentions the time siyeon ate jieqiong’s yogurt, commenting that if it was in the fridge of pledis entertainment, it was automatically hers to have due to seniority.

when jieqiong (the only other person aside from nayoung and sungyeon who know the most about her due to the years together) opens her mouth to add on, siyeon practically leaps across the table separating her from everyone else and clamps a hand over the older girls mouth, head shaking quickly at the smile that blooms onto jieqiong’s face. “okay, okay! that’s good enough, don’t you think?” when no responds in kind, siyeon actually _does_ whine now, a sound that’s a mix between a hurt puppy and a hungry baby, and stamps her foot against the carpeted floor, “come on! it’s my birthday, be nice.”

jieqiong pats siyeon’s hair in that way she does whenever siyeon gets a little too overwhelmed and needs physical proof that she’s not alone, smiles when siyeon drops her hands away from her mouth, then, “we’re just kidding, yeon-ah. you know we love you.”

(siyeon does know, they tell her all the time, just like she tells them whenever she gets the chance. she may have been at the company the longest, and she may play superior, but these girls are her family and they love each other, jokes and all.)

so she nods and smiles, reaches for the binder she put down earlier and flips through a few pages. “in that case, the first task on my birthday list is for minkyung unnie to give me money.”

minkyung groans loudly and siyeon smiles.

\---

minkyung _doesn’t_ give her money, but it’s okay. because instead, when she’s in one of the vocal rooms three hours later, working on the lyrics to a new song with the help of jihoon oppa (“ _happy birthday, siyeon-ie, one day you really will own this company. get me a bigger music room when you do_ ”), eunwoo skids into the room, yelling something about siyeon being needed in the practice room. jihoon waves her out, smile on his usual stoic face, then siyeon laughs as she’s dragged down the hall.

when they get to the practice room, there’s a cake with her name on it and presents lining the table in the corner. there’s a party hat being shoved onto her head by yaebin and a party popper is set off in the corner by a giggling nayoung. there’s a phone shoved into her face and a waving jonghyun wishing her a happy birthday, youngmin, dongho, and minki waving over his shoulder as they hold up another phone that shows a beaming mihyun. there’s smiles and laughter and everything siyeon assumed there would be.

(even soonyoung and seokmin oppa are yelling happy birthday from across the room where they try to set up the karaoke machine, jihoon stepping into the room moments later with another happy birthday thrown over his shoulder as he adds a small wrapped box to her present pile.)

she’s startled when an arm is thrown over her shoulder, kyungwon settling against her comfortably as she takes a sip from her drink. “so does this measure up to whatever things you wrote into that binder?”

siyeon looks around the room, takes in all the people she’s worked with for years, the people she considers her family away from home, and nods as she snuggles into kyungwon’s embrace.

“it’s better.”


	6. lady in luck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, jieqiong is in the hands of luck and it leads her to fate. [idolverse; jieqiong-centric]

jieqiong thinks she’s lucky, in the grand scheme of things. somehow, someway, she did what everyone in her hometown told her was impossible when she was eight: she got out. she got out, easily and in a way that no one really expected, but out nonetheless. 

she thinks it’s luck that saw her being stopped in the middle of the street on her way to practice, broken chinese being mumbled from a nervous mouth, a plain white card being shoved into her hand, nothing more than _pledis entertainment_ in the limited english she knows stamped across the front in bold font, a near paragraph of foreign characters on the back.

she thinks it’s luck that her musical teacher, a quiet mere wisp of a woman who always compliments her and buys her favorite candy on days she has lessons, is able to translate for her, a smile ghosting over her lips as she mentions to jieqiong that _this could be it for you, don’t let it pass you by_. 

she thinks it’s luck when she gets home, breathless from sprinting through side streets in excitement and unbridled energy, that her parents agree, say they know she can do whatever she puts her mind to. even though they worry, that they hug her and kiss her and tell her how proud they are, how well they know she’ll do because that’s just who she is. how they cry and wipe their eyes a week later as jieqiong stands outside an airport, bags packed and more broken chinese spoken from the guide at her side. how they wave and yell more congratulations to her back as she goes through the doors. 

she thinks she’s lucky that she can hear the pride in their cries.

— 

jieqiong knows it’s not luck when she passes her auditions, can see the awe on korean faces at what china has to offer in the form of her voice, her dance, her musicality. when they clap and smile, congratulate her for becoming one of their limited trainees, and leave her to bask in the glory of making it where so many others had not. 

she knows it’s not luck when she meets a girl named junghyeon, her small stature and innocent face disguising what she knows is years and years of maturity that someone of her age shouldn’t possess. when she introduces herself, it’s broken and reminiscent of how she got casted, but it’s all she has and she knows it’s not luck when junghyeon takes it with a laugh so loud and boisterous that jieqiong can’t help but laugh too, glad she made her first friend.

she knows it isn’t luck when she finally meets the infamous sungyeon and shy kyla over the summer, a bright yewon in the winter, then collected nayoung in the spring. knows it isn’t luck when she finds cool solidarity in a same-aged friend named yaebin a year later, when she finds loud but safe comfort in another named eunwoo after two more. she knows it’s not luck when minkyung breezes into their lives and nestles her way into their group, all easy smiles and gleaming eyes, or when kyungwon crashes into them, a light in her eyes that jieqiong has seen eight other times already, but still smiles at how bright and passionate it is. 

she knows it’s not luck when their little group forms a family, when they laugh and smile and love together. she knows it’s not luck when junghyeon pulls them aside one day after a grueling practice, hands effortlessly massaging the strained muscle in sungyeon’s calf and whispers _i’m glad this is with all of you, i couldn’t imagine it any other way_. 

she knows it’s not luck because it’s too real, too good, to just be luck.

—

jieqiong thinks it’s fate that finds her standing on this stage, the people she calls her her family surrounding her, tears in their eyes and smiles on their mouths, arms wrapped tight around her and each other, as confetti falls and the new year rings in. 

she thinks it’s fate that, when they all finally shuffle off stage, her right thumb instinctively wiping tears from a sniffling eunwoo’s cheek and her left hand encased in a death-grip by a beaming minkyung, that a phone is handed off to them by their manager, kyla’s smile the first thing greeting them into the new year.

“unnies!” kyla’s breathless and laughing, and jieqiong can hear loud cheers through the phones speaker, hears their respected seniors bustling through the halls around them, but all she can see is the fact that they did it. they’re here and together when all else fails. “ _happy new year, everyone!_ ” she hears kyla speak again over the noise around them, hears the mixture of excitement and longing to be a whole 10 together again in her voice, “ _i love you_.”

jieqiong hears as everyone relays their affirmations of love and missing for their youngest, feels warm as yaebin slings an arm around her waist, kyungwon’s over her shoulder, and smiles.

jieqiong knows this is fate and she knows that she was lucky enough that it happened to her.


	7. work of art

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> or, nayoung loves minkyung no matter what. [openverse; nayoung-centric, naminky]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whew, two in one day. i know: what a feat for me. i blame feelings and twitter. enjoy!

nayoung always wonders when minkyung is the prettiest.

like when she laughs, something that’s a mix between a toddlers giggle and an old man’s chortle, nayoung hears waves crashing on sandy beaches and fireworks popping in a quiet night sky. minkyung laughs like she has nothing to lose, like every joke is the funniest she’s ever heard, like she’s never laughed before a day in her life. she laughs like she means it, like it’s everything she feels — and nayoung always has to stop herself from staring, stop herself from wondering if minkyung has always looked this pretty when she lets loose.

or when she smiles, nayoung swears no star in the sky comes close. they’re mere specks of dirt when compared to the brilliant shine of one kim minkyung. nayoung doesn’t know if it’s her smirk, small and calculating yet still teasing, or her grin, something so wide and boastful and full of genuine glee, that pulls her in, but she doesn’t dare question it. she simply watches the demure way minkyung covers her smile when embarrassed (her fingers twitch and curl into fists to stop herself from pulling that hand away, because she _needs_ to see that smile) or how she bares her teeth in a predatorily wicked grin whenever she sidles up beside her and whispers something so teasing, so downright sinful that nayoung can’t stop the shiver that travels along her spine.

even when she opens her mouth (to speak, to sing, to whisper nayoung’s name) it’s as if a hundred church bells have started ringing across the city; it’s like flowers have come into bloom and a cloud has never touched the sky. minkyung’s voice, the soft timbre and the way she drawls her words in a cool, practiced way always has nayoung on the edge of her seat, attention peaked and eyes focused, watching the way her lips form words that nayoung has heard hundreds of times before, but sound new. she doubts that minkyung puts much thought into it, has heard the girl bemoan her own voice in a rare moment of insecurity ( _late night whispers after practice of your voice is so pretty, minkyung — so, so pretty_ ) but nayoung knows it’s her favorite sound.

now, though, nayoung knows when she finds minkyung the prettiest: it’s at four thirty-seven in the morning on a wednesday. she can hear the early morning commuters in their cars on the street below, the lite sounds of rain hitting against the window above her head, and the soft, almost breathless sounds minkyung lets out in her sleep. minkyung looks the prettiest in nayoung’s bed, the glow from the streetlights outside casting an orangish-yellow tint over her bare shoulders, hair a mess across her face and the faintest mark from nayoung’s impatient mouth on her neck.

she looks the prettiest when she presses her face into nayoung’s pillow, a quiet whine falling from her lips, then, “why are you staring at me?”

nayoung smiles, hand reaching out to trace her shoulder with the tip of her finger. “‘cause you’re pretty.”

minkyung snorts. it’s loud in the otherwise quiet room, nearly unladylike, but nayoung doesn’t care. she loves everything minkyung does. she turns until she’s pressed against nayoung’s front, her head tucked under her chin. “go to sleep, nayoung.”

her hand keeps tracing for a moment, until minkyung’s whisper of _i love you_ fades and she’s fully asleep again, then presses a kiss to the top of her head.

minkyung is the prettiest when she’s with nayoung.


End file.
